Pampered Pallet

Restaurant Eve
110 S Pitt St
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 706-0450

Last week I took my fiancé to Restaurant Eve, in Old Town Alexandria, to celebrate his 28th birthday. With the Chef and owner, Cathal Armstrong, being an Irish native, I was certain that Restaurant Eve would prove pleasing to my Irish fiancé’s pallet.

Restaurant Eve offers 2 dining options: 1.) The Chef’s Tasting Room 2.) The Bistro. The tasting menu entails a choice between five or nine courses, each paired with wine that compliments your dish. The price ranges from $95.00-$125.00 per person. Subsequently, the Bistro provides a less formal and less expensive ($26.00-$45.00) dining experience, which guests may choose among a variety of appetizers, entrées, wines and desserts.

For my first visit to Restaurant Eve, I wined and dined in the Bistro. For an appetizer, my fiancé and I shared poached mussels. These mussels were honestly the biggest mussels I have ever seen, not quite as big as my fiancé’s mussels of course, but I’m talking double the normal size big, and delicious as ever with their wine and butter sauce. For dinner I ordered seared scallops, which were tender inside and seared for a slight crunch on the outside. The presentation was marvelous, a real masterpiece. For dessert, I had caramelized banana and brownie with, what tasted like, French toast squares with a dusting of confectioner sugar. It was like having an “it’s your birthday so you get to have anything you want for breakfast” kind of dessert.

Consequently, however, the meal wasn’t what I remember most about the evening. Rather, it was how impressed I was with the waiter and his knowledge about each dish. Before ordering anything, my fiancé and I asked questions about almost every appetizer and entrée. I was pleasantly surprised by how our waiter was able to describe each dish in such detail, including the taste, special ingredients used, how they prepare the fish, meat, cheeses, breads, and where they buy (ship) their foods from. Furthermore, our waiter provided us with wine and champagne recommendations for our appetizer and entrees, including dessert wines. Quite an education for us that night. I gave a generous tip and left happy…..birthday dinner accomplished.

A couple days later, I purchased a gift certificate from the restaurant, which I gave to my sister and brother-in-law for their anniversary. They’re in for a nice treat.

Some additional notes:

If you want to check out the Chef’s Tasting Room, make your reservation two weeks in advance. However, you have more flexibility with the Bistro….you can make those reservation a couple days out.

They have a great lunch menu, which I plan to try out in the near future. You can have a three course meal (choose among any 3 items on the menu from a cocktail, appetizer, and entree to a salad, cheese platter and dessert. All at a cost of $15.00.

Slanche!